I am a lucky participant ofChewy.com‘s Blogger Outreach Program, meaning I get to try out a lot of different pet products in exchange for my honest reviews. The following review are the thoughts and opinions of yourstruly, and no way am I paid to endorse the following product.

I’ve actually never used fish-based treats before. It seems like a type of food that like people, dogs would be picky about, too. Some people like fish, others don’t; some dogs like fish, others don’t, but hey, everything’s worth trying at least once, right?

After opening the bag, the first thing I notice is PHEW, THE SMELL. These are probably some of the stinkiest treats that I have ever encountered. If you don’t like the smell of fish, you’ll definitely puke at the smell of these, haha. Almost didn’t want to use these, knowing that my hands would reek like fish for daaaaaays. Yes, that’s how bad it is. But hint*: usually the stinkier it is, the more pets love them. Weirdos.

Smell aside, here are some product shots to give you a better idea of what the treat looks like. On the back of the bag, salmon and whitefish are the two main ingredients with no by-products, which is good. Clearly, a high quality product. The actual treat itself is decent sized, They’re about the length of one of my business cards, and they have a pressed diamond-pattern on each of them. In terms of breakability, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being extremely soft and 10 being rock hard, I’d probably rate this a 5—the treats are breakable but require some decent force.
The next test, obviously, is to see what the subjects think about them. It turned out to be Olivia the Mastiff’s lucky day. See below for her cute face, happily waiting to get fed some delicious treat, as the drool starts to gather at her jowls. She LOVED them, almost better than the chicken treats that I normally use. Then again, I don’t know if she’s the best subject to test these treats on, as she normally loves all things fish in general. ;)

Conclusion: I might keep a bag of these on hand to mix things up. I don’t know if these would be my go-to, per se, since I’d still have to test these treats on more dogs for reliability (Update: As thought, not all dogs like these). There are also other treats I’m eyeing that seem like a better value (for example, these Triumph Jerky Treats, where it’s about $9 for 1.5 pounds). Overall though, these look to be healthy, nutritional, and you can break them into smaller pieces to make them last for some time.

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Next up, is the Treat Chaser review. (*Disclosure: I may already be negatively biased toward this product just based on how ugly it is)

To keep pets entertained, someone, somewhere, has the awesome job of coming up with toys that keep dogs and cats mentally occupied. One of them, is the Treat Chaser by the Outward Hound. The company describes their product as “Interactive treat-seeking doggy fun” and “Keeps your pup playing Longer”, all while “Made with durable food-safe plastic”.

On initial observation, I hate the colors. I don’t want to say I’m a design snob, but who picked them?! They’re so ugly. Maybe there’s scientific reasoning based on the color spectrum that dogs can see. Regardless, I would not buy this based on appearance.

Size-wise, it’s decent– larger than a tennis ball. As for how it works, there are no instructions, but it looks like you dump a bunch of kibble or treats into a hole (there there’s one on each side). I don’t see a way to control the size of the opening (which I’ve seen in other treat balls and is a good feature to have), so I can see future issues in controlling the rate of how quickly the treats are dispensed. Speaking of treats, I’m not even sure which ones I would use. The opening looks almost too big for regular kibble, and it seems like a pain to break larger treats into smaller pieces just to poke them through the hole one at a time.

I tested out the toy on my foster dog, and I think another fault with the design is the balance. It leans heavy on one side, making it awkward for a pet to move. Maybe that’s the point though. I don’t know.

Conclusion: Looks like I will be donating this to a local shelter. Maybe they will be able to get better use out of it.

Earlier this year, I had the joy of photographing Jessica and Ashwin’s new puppy, Minnie. In addition to the excitement of having a new puppy, they had also bought their first home together. So in a sense, the session was a celebration of many new beginnings together.

Minnie, also a “mini” Goldendoodle is probably one of the sweetest and most good-natured pup that I have ever met. (I seriously wanted to get one after I met her!) When she wasn’t too busy relaxing in front of the camera, she happily played with her favorite toys, and ran and cuddled with her humans. Some of these action shots are my favorite yet!

Thanks again Jessica and Ashwin for a wonderful session; I’m so glad I was able to help document a couple of exciting events in your life. :)

Our session was scheduled to take place on Friday, June 24th at 6pm. The weather forecast said it was going to be a beautiful day.

The evening before our session, I was outside doing some gardening, when I received an emotional voicemail from Baby’s mom saying that they would need to cancel their session. Baby had taken a turn for the worse, and it looked like she would be crossing over the Rainbow Bridge that very next day.

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well that night. Baby had been diagnosed with a herniated disc and had been using a wheelchair for some time to help her get around. Her condition had been steadily decreasing when I was first contacted in the beginning of June to set up a session for her. I knew that this would be an end-of-life type of session, but as an outsider, you never really know how the situation is exactly.

I tossed and turned. This reminded me of another situation that had happened last year. Another woman had contacted me about photographing her dog who was terminally ill but wanted to wait until the dog had “perked up” on her medication, to better capture her personality. We waited and waited. Waited until it was too late.

I don’t know whose regret was greater. Hers for not getting professional photos of her furbae sooner when she was healthy and happy, or me, for not being more firm on that it’s better to have this type of session sooner rather than later. Given that these types of situations are so emotional, I really try to be as sensitive and as accommodating as possible.

One of the most rewarding things about doing pet photography, is being able to give someone something that captures their pet’s personality, a moment with them, that you can remember forever, long after they have passed on. If there’s no reaction or feeling when looking at an image, you’re doing it all wrong.

With the previous situation still fresh in mind, I decided to propose the crazy idea of doing the session the same day before Baby went, if they were up for it. If I had to take a loss on it, so be it. I’d rather know that I had given my all, and gotten at least some photos (even though I didn’t know how they would turn out), rather than regretting (once again) due to not getting photos while we could, on either side, because I had tried.

The lighting wasn’t ideal. The sun was strong and contrasty when we met early afternoon. All of the ideas that we had discussed during our consult about capturing Baby doing all of her favorite things: swimming in the pool, walking in her red booties, hanging out in front of the house, and going to the park, were all thrown out the window given the situation. We made the best of it, and thankfully, despite everything, Baby still had enough spunk to smell out and devour all of my delicious treats while modeling it up for the camera.

Thank you Caroline and Gavin. I hope these images of Baby bring you a bit of comfort. Baby–may you be happily peeing on everyone’s shoes somewhere over the Rainbow Bridge. <3